"ITUMBIARA, Brazil — This should be a golden era here on Brazil’s farming frontier, where some of the world’s biggest corporations have invested billions of dollars in land, equipment and mills to turn sugar cane into ethanol."

"The allure for these giants is Brazil itself, where most cars are built to run on the biofuel. An even bigger, largely untapped market awaits in the United States, where environmental standards favor cane-based ethanol over corn ethanol. Then there is China, with its growing, formidable fleet of cars.

To get the fuel to consumers, crews are building an 800-mile system of pipelines and river barges designed to carry billions of liters from here in central Brazil to bustling ports on the Atlantic. That, at least, was the plan."